


Love Lanterns

by k_yuuki



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_yuuki/pseuds/k_yuuki
Summary: It is a mistake he can never forgive himself from, he should have known better. It has been his plan, after all.Though calling it a plan is a stretch. At most it's a half baked idea, because it never really formed to a real plan. But the other gives him a fragile smile, precious and fleeting, and walks in without looking back.





	Love Lanterns

**Author's Note:**

> I tried my best to incorporate the lyrics of the song, yay~! I want a story that’s more uplifting and heartwarming, but lately I’ve been listening to heartbreak songs and they stuck! It takes all of me to make it a somewhat happy ending, so here it is, my contribution to UraIchi PC#3.
> 
> The song in question is a 2.5D anisong, [Tide -Hikari no Sasu Hou e-](https://tsukipro.fandom.com/wiki/Tide_-Hikari_no_Sasu_Hou_e-_\(song\))

Ichigo glances up, closing his eyes as he feels the night wind caressing his skin. It is full moon tonight.

He basks in the light, never wanting the night to fade away. But it always will.

Time stops for no one, not even for him, but sometimes, it does feel like so.

* * *

Kisuke knew he made a mistake that would never be forgiven. Maybe it was not a mistake, not when it was planned by him years ago the first time he saw the young boy.

It had been his plan, but he never intended to go through with it. Now, when all was lost and the young man had walked in straight to his death without looking back, giving him a smile so fragile and precious and fleeting, he never hated himself even more.

It was a half baked plan, never to see any light of day.

Maybe not even a plan, just a _theory_ — a hypothesis, even. Not yet proven, and the scientist that came up with it did not even want to prove it, happy for it to be stored at the back of his safe.

But weren’t all his mistakes caused by his half baked ideas and not knowing where the line was drawn between what he would regret and not?

He could only watch as the young man went to that faraway place because his brain had been too slow to find another solution.

***

All he wanted was to scream despite his voice never reaching the other side of the moon.

It was useless, just a brief delusion the other could hear him. Not to mention, it would disturb the neighbors. So he did what he can instead, he set out to work. Setting up hundreds of theories and ways to bring him back, and throwing them away only when it truly was unachievable.

There were nights where he wanted to see the other so badly his heart could stop.

But he was a soul, they did not have heart problems and if he wanted to see the other, all he could do was to make a way where it would happen. Thus, he sat up, watching the experiments moving too slowly for his liking, but everything was a process. If he skipped one, it could lead to an even more screwed up situation. He was not a miracle worker, after all.

During the times where he was so tired he passed out on his lab, he dreamt of meeting the other.

To apologize again and again, for all his failures. But it was a self satisfaction for forgiveness he did not deserve, so he woke up and set to work yet again. The faster he found a solution, the better.

Yoruichi found him almost dead again buried in his works, failures upon failures and yet another half baked idea and only vague consolation to their problem. He knew he had been asking for the impossible, but Urahara Kisuke never understood the true meaning of that word. No, he liked to poke fun of it until it gave and spat out what he wanted, or at least the closest thing to that impossibility.

Even if most of the times they were things he did not understand and dangerous.

So Yoruichi hit him on the back of his head, dragged him to Tessai’s futon and sat on him until he fell to yet another uneasy sleep.

If he dreamt of that smile and orange hair, he would not need to tell Yoruichi that. The lady knew him like the back of her hands, sometimes better than him himself.

“Kisuke, he would not be happy to see you like this,” she chastised.

Kisuke hid his grimace behind his fan, annoying her even more. She hated it when he used his persona on her, but she had been gone for too long to keep his bad habits in check like she used to. “Well, I suppose he’s not here, does he?”

He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it out loud and Yoruichi sighed.

As soon as the storm passed, he set up to do yet another test. Maybe it was a half baked consolation prize, maybe the other would not be happy for the solution he found, but he could not see another way. It was a dangerous way of thinking, something a scientist should never do. There were always another way, when it was not, it meant you were backed into a corner. When you were backed into a corner, you were not thinking outside the box and it would be the death of the scientist.

“Kisuke,” called Yoruichi, cutting off his self-destructive thoughts. So maybe the storm had not passed, after all. “Come with me.”

The blond sighed, turning off the machines and walked out the porch, following the other with reluctant steps.

“You really should need to keep your bad habits in check,” she told him and _shunpo-ed_ them out.

It was night time, the full moon was high above their head, waning slightly. It was beautiful and seemingly untouchable. When he looked down, he noticed she had taken him to a _hanami_ celebration and gestured him to sit beside her, taking out her _sake_ stash.

“Tonight, you rest and have fun,” she ordered, “Tomorrow, you can continue your research.”

Kisuke closed his fan, protests died on the tip of his tongue as he drank down the first cup. This might be an unwanted impulse, to suddenly throw away his responsibility for a brief reprieve, but maybe it was not that bad. Even if amidst all the beautiful, fleeting _sakura_ petals, all he could focus was at the lonely lily flower standing proud beside the sturdy tree.

He woke up with the chirps of birds singing around him and he rose to his feet, ignoring the pounding on his head nor the biting coldness enveloping him. It was morning, but he could vaguely make out the moon high above his head.

There was another way — the idea popped into his head. A temporary solution, but this way Ichigo could at least go back and see his loved ones again before it was too late while he searched for a permanent one.

* * *

The door mysteriously appears in front of him one day, startling him out of all the thinking he has been doing. Ichigo smiles when the door opens and the broken clock ticks again. The full moon seems to shine even brighter above their head, as the two finally united under the same side of the moon, embracing each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Ichigo!


End file.
